The Madison River in the Park is looking better every week - and this past week’s rain has pumped flows a bit and cloud cover has inspired a few more fish to move up. 

Flows today near West Yellowstone are 335 cfs at 0515, with the average for today 429 cfs, and the 20% marker 358 cfs. 

Don’t be put off by the “discussion” you might hear about the fish weir on the Madison between the Highway 191 bridge and Baker’s Hole - fish are moving through in very good numbers, though you’re reminded not to fish in the areas immediately up or downstream of the weir.

With the fish becoming a bit more aggressive this week, streamers have been very useful, particularly in the first and last two hours of the day - morning has been a bit better for us. 

The nymph crowd is still doing well also, as are the soft hackle adherents.  We’ve even been swinging a small mayfly type soft hackle in tandem with a larger nymph (eg - bigger GRHE) and doing very well.

Finally - the dry fly crowd has still been playing with the mid to late afternoon BWO and small, dark caddis hatch that you see on the Firehole too - though the caddis haven’t quite been as strong this week.

There are lots of anglers on the water still, though we’ll have to see how the big game opener affects crowds this weekend.

The  Upper and Lower Madison river in Montana below the lakes continues to fish well, as does the stretch between the lakes - check our Madision River Reports (divided into Upper Madison and Lower Madison) at Best Fly Fishing Montana.com (this link will take you right to the report blog). 

The Upper and Lower Madison reports were updated today.

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Flies to have in the box:

Dries:  Caddis - EHC, X Caddis, JN’s Deer Hair Caddis - tan, olive, black;  baetis - BWO, Blue Dun, Olive Sparkle Dun, Comparadun, Para-Adams;

Nymphs: Yuk Bug; San Juan Worm, red, brown, tan; PT; BHPT; BH Hares Ear, Copper John, olive; BH Prince; Lightning bugs, gold, silver, green/olive; soft hackles as per above.

Streamers:  Wooly buggers and Wooly worms, brown, yellow, olive, black; Sparkle buggers, same colors; Girdle bug; Zonkers, assorted; JJs

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